Tag: the singularity

I don't know about you, but I cannot live without a few secrets. Without secrets, without a private inner life, we lose our individuality and our sense of self. Today though, we are bombarded with messages telling us that privacy is worth sacrificing for the greater good; for the good of community security, for the … Continue reading Secrets and Lies→

"The pseudoscience of planning seems almost neurotic in its determination to imitate emphatic failure and ignore empire success." - The Life and Death of American Cities Scale by Geoffrey West may not be the easiest read (it has a highly academic style, complete with lots of highly academic jabs at different academic fields - … Continue reading Scale→

The Library of Babel is a short story by Jorge Louis Burges - in 1941 - about an infinite library, containing all the knowledge of the world. The Library of Babel is utterly wonderful concept to bibliophiles and futurists like myself. (Infinite books! Infinite knowledge!) It has also been a source of inspiration for many … Continue reading The Library of Babel→

In many ways, common myths are the glue that hold human society together. This does not make these myths "true". It just makes them true enough for a large enough majority to believe in. When people believe in something, really truly believe in it, they will do almost anything to defend that belief, often to the … Continue reading The future of our shared myths→

Should we be afraid of the rise of the machines? Of that fact that artificial intelligence rapidly approaching the point of singularity - when the sum total artificial intelligence is smarter than the sum-total of human intelligence? Should we be implanting upgradable computer chips in our brains, as Elon Musk suggests, to ensure that human … Continue reading It only takes one guy→